Environmental Product Declaration

An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD ) is a Type III environmental declaration. This provides quantified environmental information from the life cycle of a product or service available in order to allow comparisons between products or services the same function. An EPD is based on independently verified data from life cycle assessments of property, balance sheets or information modules, which are compliant with the 14040 series of standards, ISO, and can contain more information. The Institut Bauen und Umwelt eV and accredited by DKD Institute for Window Technology in Rosenheim are publicly recognized program operators in Germany, which create EPDs for the construction sector and publish. Further, the European Association of Plastics Industry, Plastics Europe, a methodology developed to based on the available Ökoprofilen create an EPD.

Standardization

As environmental declarations of the type are created III, according to the standard ISO 14025 ( Environmental labels and declarations - Type III environmental declarations - Principles and procedures ) regulated. In addition, the ISO 21930 ( Sustainable construction - Environmental declaration of building products ) goes concretely on the declaration of building products.

Included information

In an EPD must

  • The life cycle inventory (LCI Life Cycle Inventory Analysis)
  • Impact assessment ( LCIA Life Cycle Impact Assessment, if performed) is
  • And other indicators (eg, the type and amount of waste produced )

Be included.

The life cycle inventory (LCI ) includes information on resource consumption, such as Energy, water and renewable resources and emissions to air, water and soil.

The impact assessment ( LCIA ) is based on the results of the inventory analysis and gives specific environmental impacts.

These are

  • Greenhouse effect
  • Depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer
  • Acidification ( water and soil )
  • Eutrophication
  • Formation of photochemical oxidants
  • Depletion of fossil energy resources
  • Exhaustion of mineral resources.

In addition, further information on environmental issues (eg, hazards and risks to human health), and / or data to use, function and performance of a product can be specified.

Use

EPDs are, for example, used in connection with the rating system Sustainable Building ( NBB ) of the Federal Government and the German Quality Seal for Sustainable Building DGNB. They serve among other things as basic data for the calculation of the LCA ( embodied energy ), and / or energy consumption of a building. Thus, different variants of the same building can already in the planning phase with respect to the ecological quality are compared.

For more information

  • What environmental product declarations?
  • Institute Construction and Environment: Product Declarations
  • Environmental Product Declarations ( EPDs )
  • Green Responsibility: Sustainability In Building
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